The Lynx dynasty comes down to this: A one-game playoff showdown in L.A.

The last time the Minnesota Lynx’s core was in a single-elimination playoff game was the NCAA tournament. For some of them, that was a decade or more ago.

The reigning champions, as the No. 7 seed of eight that advance to the WNBA playoffs, are in a win-or-go-home matchup with, fittingly, the Los Angeles Sparks Tuesday at Staples Center. The veteran teams have determined the last two WNBA champions.

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Again? Again?!” guard Seimone Augustus said laughing. “You know, a very familiar foe. They’re going to bring it. (head coach Brian Agler) is going to have his team ready and obviously Cheryl’s going to do the best that she can to get us ready. We’re in a situation that we’re unfamiliar with as far as being in the one-and-done. But it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun to go out there and do it.”

The Lynx and Sparks were the top two seeds last season and still feature a combined four WNBA MVPs. The 2016 and 2017 WNBA Finals featured epic finishes and the rivalry helped fuel interest in the league.

“It’s going to be knock-down, drag-out,” Reeve said. “We know each other so well and we have to go and play on their floor where they’ve played well. I think both teams have kind of found their seasons to be a bit up and down. Now all that doesn’t matter. Now it’s all about Tuesday, a survive-and-advance game. You’ll see a hard-fought game, no doubt about it. Everything’s going to be a grind. Every pass, every shot, every cut. It’ll probably be vintage Sparks and Lynx but this time not in the Finals situation.”

The Lynx won one of four regular-season games against the Sparks this year. The first was a buzzer-beater for L.A. in the nationally-televised season opener on May 20 — and Lindsay Whalen’s best game of the season. She had a team-high 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting and nine assists in a season-high 28 minutes. Minnesota held the Sparks to 40 percent shooting, but Sparks guard Chelsea Gray muscled her way to the game-winner on the road.

"We did it again!"

Another @la_sparks–@minnesotalynx classic, ANOTHER buzzer-beater! #WatchMeWork #WNBAAllDay pic.twitter.com/1KAiXVsI4Q

— WNBA (@WNBA) May 20, 2018

The next, on June 3, was 77-69 in favor of the Sparks in L.A., followed by an 83-72 Lynx win on July 5, in which Sylvia Fowles poured in 27 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. The final game, on Aug. 2 at Staples Center, was a rare blowout in the competitive series going back several years. The Lynx were held to a season-low 57 points in a 22-point defeat.

Despite the 1-3 regular season record and persistent danger of Candace Parker going off any given night, this is a favorable matchup for the Lynx. The familiarity on both sides of the ball, similar pace of play and one-on-one battles are better suited for Minnesota than the Phoenix Mercury or Connecticut Sun — both of which were options to drop to the sixth seed on the final day of the regular season.

The Lynx and Sparks have the fewest number of possessions per 40 minutes in the league, so they’re comfortable with each other’s relatively slower pace of play. The 2018 regular season saw a noticeable uptick in offense, with three teams (Washington, Seattle and Connecticut) surpassing the previous record for team offensive rating and a record six players averaging more than 20 points per game. The Lynx and Sparks dropped from the top of the standings from 2017 to 2018, and stronger offenses to contend with are one reason why.

For as talented as Nneka Ogwumike — who is listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game — and Parker are in the frontcourt, the Sparks lack muscle at the rim to contain Fowles. They’re a strong defensive team — L.A. and Minnesota are the top two teams in the league in points allowed per game — and last year’s MVP will have to respond well to their aggressive double teams and make smart decisions passing out of the post.

Fowles averaged nearly four assists per game against the Sparks, up from 2.2 for the entire season, so she is looking to get rid of the ball when she can’t score in the post and her teammates are helping to spread the floor. Overall against L.A. she’s scoring 17.5 points and grabbing 9.2 rebounds on 61.4 percent shooting. In this matchup especially, she’s a rim protector and focal point for the Sparks defense and a major reason why the Lynx outrebounded the Sparks in all four games. However, she also turned it over against the Sparks more than any other opponent at five per game in 2018.

Fowles will have just one day of rest coming off a 36-minute night in Whalen’s final regular-season home game Sunday. Reeve said that wasn’t ideal heading into the postseason, but she also set the WNBA single-season rebounding record. Plus, getting that win was important for other reasons.

“I think our players really wanted to win for Lindsay,” she said. “But, we have a playoff game to play so you’re not crazy about playing Sylvia Fowles 36 minutes but then something really cool happened for Sylvia Fowles along the way. Setting the single-season record for number of rebounds is quite impressive.

“Again, I know things went about as well as they could. I actually got Maya (Moore) some rest, with Temi (Fagbenle) being able to come in and play and us to get separation because you get to a certain point where you just want to win the game and I think that’s what the players wanted.”

Like the Lynx themselves, Moore had an up-and-down regular season with nearly as many 30-point games (four) as games under 10 (five). Compared to last year, she saw dips in her three-point shooting (41.1 percent in 2017 to 36.5 percent in 2018), field-goal percentage (44.2 to 42.3) and assists per game (3.5 to 2.6), but her scoring was up from 17.3 points per game to 18 and she finished 2018 a tick better than the five rebounds she pulled in a season ago.

Another positive for the Lynx coming in to the first-round game is that Moore has performed better on the road this season, scoring five more points per game on average and shooting nine points better. But over the last several years, 36-year-old reigning defensive player of the year Alana Beard has effectively pestered Moore in the regular season. It’s been a different story the 2016 and 2017 WNBA Finals, but in four games against the Sparks this season Moore’s been held to 11.2 points on 36.4 percent shooting. Only Phoenix forced her into more turnovers per game.

Moore and Fowles have carried a significant load this season and will continue to if the Lynx expect to advance and repeat, but they still need support. Sunday’s 88-83 win over Washington was as cohesive and balanced (six players scored in double figures) as the Lynx have had all season.

“I think Lindsay was at the forefront of it,” Reeve said. “Maybe not winning our last couple games and giving up 96 and 91 might have had something to do with wanting to be better, I hope. They still shot almost 51 percent. I think Lindsay was probably at the forefront of that, and that’s OK because I think what you get out of it, you see what they can do together when we get this balance thing going. They know what the formula is.”

Whalen had one of her strongest games of the year with 10 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals in 27 minutes. “Lindsay Whalen Day” has passed but Reeve wants to see that production carry over to the playoffs.

“Lindsay played well,” Reeve said. “I would love to see this be a momentum thing for her. We need her. We need her to play like that and it has been such an emotional ride for her that this past week … we were in Connecticut and she’s made herself sick, not necessarily the requests to do things and talk about things, but it’s highly emotional to walk away from something you’ve done for so long, and so I think it really physically was affecting her, as in typical Lindsay Whalen fashion it does.”

Cecilia Zandalasini, who was inserted into the starting lineup after Rebekkah Brunson was concussed Aug. 5, seemed to regain her confidence with a 12-point night. The month of August has been tough for Zandalasini, who’s shooting just 27.3 percent from beyond the arc. Reeve said she sat down with the 22-year-old to tell her that the coaching staff believes in her and to not lose confidence.

“We want her to go through these moments of learning and oftentimes you have to fail before you succeed,” Reeve said. “I think with Cecilia, letting her know it’s OK you didn’t do something well or as you expected. She’s hard on her herself. She has high expectations. She’s just 22, and I told her it’s a process.”

Reeve said “we’ve kind of thrown her to the wolves,” asking Zandalasini to guard players like Chicago’s Allie Quigley and Connecticut’s Courtney Williams to avoid Augustus having to “chase” them around. Her ability to spread the floor and knock down threes is critical to opening the paint for Fowles.

The biggest challenge for the Lynx will be guarding Parker without Brunson, who was listed as “questionable” prior to the Mystics game and remains day-to-day, though Reeve did not rule her out for Tuesday. The WNBA’s all-time rebounding leader — with the most rings of any player in league history — has been responsible for guarding the bevy of talented fours in the WNBA. Parker is an extremely difficult matchup for anyone, but when Brunson can handle her one-on-one, it makes things easier for the Lynx on defense as well as offense.

With a win Tuesday, the Lynx would meet either the fourth-seeded Connecticut Sun or No. 3 seed Washington Mystics. Both teams received a bye to the second round, which is also a single-elimination game.

It’s been a different regular-season outcome for the Lynx, who find themselves as underdogs for the first time during their dynasty run, but other teams should know not to overlook them.

“I think it would be foolish to do so,” Fowles said. “You can’t underestimate the heart of a champion. We put ourselves in this position so whatever happens happens, but don’t count us out just because we’re in the seven spot.”

(Top image: The Lynx’s two previous visits to Staples Center this season didn’t end well. If the third time’s a charm, their season will live on another day. Credit: Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)